1MARCH 2015

Asian Institute of Technology MARCH 2015

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand has been awarded top five-star ratings in three (3) categories –internationalization,

teaching and facilities – by Quacquarelli Symonds, known as QS, one of the world’s leading higher education evaluation agencies. The QS Stars™ rating program is an independent rating system for many of the world’s best universities.

As an international postgraduate institute, but not a full-fledged university and not affiliated with a particular country, AIT has always been excluded from major world university rankings. For the first

AIT awarded QS five-star ratingsRatings affirm postgraduate institute’s top international standing

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Recent News / Happenings at AIT..................................................2-4Photo Gallery...................................................................................4People / Seminars...........................................................................5Backpage........................................................................................6

time AIT participated in the QS Stars™ rating program, which was recently introduced as a new complementary companion to the annual QS university ranking.

AIT was assessed across a variety of criteria based on its 2013 data, and received an overall score of four stars out of five in January 2015. “This is a great achievement considering that AIT is a small institution,” QS said, in its final report. According to QS, a typical four-star university is highly international, and demonstrates excellence in both research and teaching.

2MARCH 2015

RECENT NEWS / HAPPENINGS AT AIT

AIT alumnus is Premier of TaiwanWhile the 55-year history of AIT is laden with achievements of its alumni, the appointment of AIT Alumnus H.E. Dr. Mao Chi-Kuo as Premier of Taiwan, is a historical first for the Institute.

The newly appointed Premier of Taiwan is the first alumnus of the Institute to rise to the position of Premier. Previous AIT alumni have held senior ministerial positions in many countries all across the globe. As Premier of the Executive Yuan, he heads the executive branch of Taiwan. Congratulating Dr. Mao, AIT President Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai described it as “a true testimony to the success of AIT’s alumni in Taiwan.” It is an in-dicator of the immense contributions that AIT alumni have made towards its economic development and prosperity,” Prof. Worsak added. Dr. Mao’s association with AIT stems from his Master’s

H.E. Dr. Mao Chi-Kuo

H.E. Mr. Paul Ro-billiard, Ambas-sador of Australia to the Kingdom of Thailand, called on AIT on 2 Feb-ruary 2015. Am-bassador Robil-liard expressed interest in know-

Australian Ambassador to Thailand visits AIT

H.E. Mr. Paul Robilliard

degree in Engineering from the Division of Community and Rural Development in 1975.

ing AIT’s full range of current collaborations with Australia, to identify where specific op-portunities may exist. He was also receptive to learn about the AIT faculty secondment ini-tiative, and the upcoming Regional Forum on Climate Change to be hosted by AIT in July.

AIT President Prof Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai introduced the ambassador to many aspects of AIT’s regional focus and international charac-ter. He was pleased to inform that Australia is one of the eight founding member countries of the South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), which founded AIT in 1959.

AIT is one the most prestigious institutes in Asia: Bangladesh AmbassadorOn her maiden visit, H.E. Ms. Saida Muna Tas-neem described AIT as one of the most prestigious institutes of Asia. Visiting AIT on 3 February 2015,

H.E. Ms. Saida Muna Tasneem

H.E. Ms. Tasneem recounted her days as a student at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technol-ogy (BUET), as she reminisced on the prestige enjoyed by AIT. “It was an aspiration of BUET students to join AIT,” she said.

The Ambassador remarked that it would be her privi-lege to help raise the profile of a top Asian institute like AIT in the global discourse. She also proposed the es-tablishment of “AIT Country Chairs,” whereby differ-ent countries could establish their respective “Chairs” at AIT. The Ambassador was accompanied by Md. Azi-zur Rahman, Counsellor, Embassy of Bangladesh.

See also Page 5 and 6.

3MARCH 2015

RECENT NEWS / HAPPENINGS AT AIT

Uzbekistan Consulate-General delegation visits AIT

A delegation from the Consulate-Gen-eral of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Thailand, led by its Vice-Consul Mr. Sherzod Soatov, visited AIT on 13 February 2015 to promote coopera-tion with AIT.

“With its immense contribution in the field of education, science and arith-metic, Uzbekistan has a lot of poten-

Mr. Tatsuya Kanai (left) being felicitated by scholarship recipient Ms. Pragya Niraula.

“AIT’s ADB-JSP scholarship program is one of the most successful schemes” ̶ ADB team

The Asian Development Bank-Ja-pan Scholarship Program (ADB-JSP) at AIT is among the most suc-cessful scholarship schemes, and the program will continue to offer scholarships to students. These were the sentiments expressed by Mr. Tatsuya Kanai, Senior Advisor, Office of Cofinancing Operations, ADB during this visit to AIT on 4 February 2015.

The scholarship program, which be-

tial,” Vice-Counsul Mr. Sherzod said. Accompanied by two officials — Chief of Chancery Mr. Murad Talipov, and Mr. Worachit, Secretary to Consulate General, the three-member delegation invited AIT officials to visit Uzbeki-stan, and offered to facilitate meetings between AIT and the Ministry of High-er Education.

(From left) Mr. Sherzod Soatov, Mr. Murad Talipov, and Mr. Worachit,

gan in 1988, has so far produced 335 alumni, and 21 students are currently enrolled at AIT under this program. Led by Mr. Kanai, the ADB delegation included Mr. Kazushi Sato, Senior Financing Partnerships Specialist, and Ms. Eloise Valerie M. Martinez, Associate Financing Partnerships Officer. Mr. Kanai stated that while ADB is extremely happy with the program, it also seeks feedback both from the recipients and AIT. He also proposed a system for tracking the career paths of the ADB scholarship recipients, and stressed a need for greater national diversity among scholarship recipients.

Stating that demand for technical expertise and training is far outstripping capacity, Head of the Unit-ed Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Of-fice for Northeast Asia, Dr. Sanjaya Bhatia, requested AIT to share its roster of ex-perts, and to consider a mo-dality for delivery of Global Education Training Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction (GETI) training tools and learning modules.

Meeting with AIT officials on 5 February 2015. Bha-tia, who was accompanied by Mr. Armen Rostomyan, Program Officer, stated that GETI is interested to fran-chise its 10-module training portfolio through partner-ships with universities and institutes to conduct train-ing of trainers.

UNISDR for Northeast Asia / GETI approaches AIT

Dr. Sanjaya Bhatia (right) and Mr. Armen Rostomyan.

4MARCH 2015

RECENT NEWS / HAPPENINGS AT AIT / PHOTO GALLERY

AIT Cultural Show: 20 February 2015

130 aspirants savor AIT for a day at Open House

One-hundred-and-thirty aspirants sa-vored life at AIT for a day at the Open House organized on 6 February 2015.

Coming from vari-ous universities,

these potential applicants were addressed by the AIT President Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai who intro-duced them to the underlying philosophy of the In-stitute. “AIT is the best place in Thailand to prepare yourself for international competition,” Prof. Worsak remarked, as he exhorted students to increase their appetite for knowledge and learning. Welcoming prospective students to AIT, Dr. Gabrielle Groves, Head, External Relations and Communications Of-fice (ERCO), enumerated the unique features of life at AIT. AIT makes you a “global citizen” as you forge lasting relationships and form international networks, she remarked.

11 students complete Professional Masters in Banking and Finance

Eleven students were awarded professional tran-scripts at the com-pletion ceremony of the fourth intake of AIT’s Profes-

sional Master’s In Banking and Finance (PMBF) pro-gram on 20 February 2014. Mr. Md Ahsan Ullah, Execu-tive Director Bangladesh Bank, spoke about “Banking and Finance – Bangladesh Perspective,” while Mr. Ara-vinda Perera Managing Director, Sampath Bank PLC, Sri Lanka talked about “Trends in Banking Industry in Sri Lanka.”

Also gracing the event were H.E. Ms. Saida Muna Tas-neem, Ambassador of Bangladesh to Thailand; Mr. Azi-zur Rahman, Counsellor, Embassy of Bangladesh; Dr. Donyaprueth Krairit, Dean School of Management; Dr. Jonathan Shaw, Executive Director, AIT Extension; and Dr. Sundar Venkatesh, Coordinator, PMBF program.

5MARCH 2015

PEOPLE/SEMINARS

Unveiling the story of inclusive growth in Bangladesh

Bangladesh represents a unique example of inclu-sive banking, where the underprivileged are able to open bank accounts for as little as 10 taka (12 cents). Moreover, 80 per-cent of the rickshaw pull-ers in the capital city of

Dr. Atiur Rahman

Two projects prepared by AIT were presented at the King Narai military camp on the occasion of Estab-lishment Day at the King Narai Military Camp. Pre-senting the projects were Mr. Waqar Shahid, a doc-toral student, and Dr. Mon-

AIT presents two projects at King Narai Military Camp

Mr. Waqar Shahid at the King Narai Military Camp.

Bishwakanta Gautam joins as Chief Internal Auditor

Mr. Bishwakanta Gautam has joined AIT as Chief Internal Auditor. Mr. Gautam is a Certified Internal Auditor and holds a Master’s Degree in Busi-ness Administration. He has completed various assignments in internal audit-ing, audit system, capacity building, financial management and parliamen-tary capacity building in Sierra Leone,

Mr. Bishwakanta Gautam

Towards Knowledge Management for 21st century Asia

Traversing the path of a pos-sible Asian Century, Dr. Bindu Lohani, Vice Presi-dent of Asian Development Bank (ADB) d e l i n e a t e d

Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Cambodia and Laos as a United Nations staff member, and as a consultant under the World Bank and EU-funded projects. He has served with the Office of Auditor General of Nepal for 21 years holding progressive responsibilities as Audit Officer, Director and Assistant Audi-tor General. Mr. Gautam is a Nepalese national.

gkol Ekpanyapong of Microelectronics and Embedded Systems of AIT’s School of Engineering and Technol-ogy (SET). The two projects include the fire detection system called “Quick Blaze” and a human motion detec-tion system, both of which are being developed at the Vision Graphics Lab of AIT under the supervision of Dr. Matthew N. Dailey and Dr. Mongkol, both of SET. The “Quick Blaze” system is a real-time detection system which can detect flames and fires within 30 seconds. The human motion detection system also works in real-time, and it can record frames from any movement or activity within a restricted area.

the journey from agricultural economies to knowledge economies at a seminar on “De-velopment and Innovation Challenges in Asia: Role of Knowledge Institutions,” which was delivered at AIT on 25 February 2015. Dr. Lohani, who is an alumnus and former

Dhaka use mobile financial services. Mobile financial services cross USD 1 billion every month, and in Janu-ary 2015 it touched $ 1.2 billion. Unraveling the success story of Bangladesh was Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor, Bangladesh Bank, at a lecture delivered at AIT on 16 February 2015.

With the Ambassador of Bangladesh to Thailand, H.E. Ms. Saida Muna Tasneem in the audience, Dr. Rahman remarked that financial inclusion was bolstering eco-nomic growth in the country.

faculty member of AIT, stated that Korea represents a unique example in Asia, where a country has moved from being a developing economy to a developed economy. He identified water, sanitation, integrated water resource management, clean energy, sustainable transport, urban development and smart liveable cities as growth areas in Asia.

Dr. Bindu Lohani

6MARCH 2015

Editor: Bajinder Pal Singh

bajinder@ait.asiaDesigner:

Nadhika MendhakaPhotos:

Paitoon TinnapongIndrajeet DattaRehan ul Haq

For feedback, contact Media and Communications

Unit at AIT mcu@ait.asia

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NewsYouCanUse

LinkedIn has announced three new tools for students: Decision Boards, University Outcome Rankings and University Finder

Follow AIT at

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Vice Chairman of the AIT Board of Trustees. Dr. John D. Nelson (left) hands over his personal donation from Dr. John and Mrs. Darlene Nelson of US $ 16, 260.91 to AIT President Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai.

AIT Library Fundraising Campaign crosses two-third’s markWithin weeks of launching the AIT library fundraising campaign, the initiative has raised 33.44 million THB (over 1 million USD), which is almost two-thirds of the target of the 50 million THB. The campaign, which began in December 2014, will conclude on 31 March 2015.

More details are available here: http://www.modernlibrary.ait.ac.th

An updated list of donors (Feb 2015) is available at this link: http:/ /www.ait .ac.th/news-and-events/2015/news/150225-donors-list.pdf

“DecisionBoards is a decision-making tool meant to help students “share their evolving thought process with and request input from trusted advisors.” They can also meet future classmates for inspiration and commiseration be-fore even stepping on campus.

University Finder is supposed to make searching for schools a more per-sonalized experience using interactive graphs based on the future career each student imagines for himself or herself.

UniversityOutcomeRankings aims to help by showing which schools are best at launching graduates into desirable jobs.”

From The Next Web: http://goo.gl/Ccwacc

Check out AIT at: https://www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=17195